Faking Logbook Entries Fact or Fiction?

[crpntr133]

OK I missed something because I don't see where anyone is bashing the rag. If I missed it I apologize. A question was asked and nobody has said that the publisher is full of it and created the article.

I do know of someone that has faked a log book. Why?? good question. Kinda like someone that is not doing tech work and they have a BC (not a BP/W) with 70lbs of lift. I guess they think they need it.
I have been asked for my dive log once. It wasn't just because I was green. Everyone including the instructor had to show his log.

I am at 50 dives and fill out the log for each. This will especially be true for the next few since I will be diving dry for the first time. My weight info and other things that I might want to take a look at will be marked in my log. Once I reach 100 I will get a bit picky as to what I log...or so I think.

 

[Rick Inman]

It happens every month. Someone reads the Lessons for Life in Scuba Diving, then bashes the article, claiming it was faked. If you don't like the magazine, don't read it. Unless you have absolute proof that the articles have been made up, then you are just as bad as you claim the magazine is. BTW, I have no stake the in magazine at all. However, I have been a journalist and I am just sick and tired of know-it-alls who think, because of Jayson Blaire and others of his ilk, all reporting is fake. It's like saying all car mechanics are thieves, all lawyers are dishonest, etc. Some people obviously have it in for the magazine and come on this board posting absolute nonsense every time a new issue come out. It's getting old.

OK Sunshine, I think you need a dive.

"Every month"? "Every time"? You got a few superlatives going on here, referring to threads I don't recall (I remember one). Who is the "you" you're referring to, and the "some people" and the "know-it-alls"?

I re-read the first post and can't find the connection. ??

 

[AndrewK2]

Unfortunately, a friend of mine who I took my DM course with only has 12 dives.
I tried to convince him that he needed the actual experience and it's more than just getting a stupid piece of plastic afterwards but he didn't really care.
Throughout the course however, I was surprised that he could perform the skills without any difficulty and at the same level everyone else did. The fact that he could do this took away any advice I gave him - he told me me why should he need 60 dives if he could do everything right?
His logbook wasn't elaborately faked, in fact, I'm pretty sure anyone who actually attempted to read through it would realize that it's all fake - in his "60 dives" he only has 3 buddies, one colour ink no instructor or dive operator signatures or stamps.
Is there anything I would tell this guy before something terrible happens to him?

 

[markfm]

How about "Dive"? The mechanical skills and theory aren't all that difficult, it's putting them into practice, actually reacting properly when your mask gets kicked off or someone comes up and grabs your reg in an OOA. As a relatively new diver I continue to seek chances to dive whenever I can, and work at least some skills on every dive.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Unfortunately, a friend of mine who I took my DM course with only has 12 dives.
I tried to convince him that he needed the actual experience and it's more than just getting a stupid piece of plastic afterwards but he didn't really care.
Throughout the course however, I was surprised that he could perform the skills without any difficulty and at the same level everyone else did. The fact that he could do this took away any advice I gave him - he told me me why should he need 60 dives if he could do everything right?
His logbook wasn't elaborately faked, in fact, I'm pretty sure anyone who actually attempted to read through it would realize that it's all fake - in his "60 dives" he only has 3 buddies, one colour ink no instructor or dive operator signatures or stamps.
Is there anything I would tell this guy before something terrible happens to him?

I'd inform the instructor immediately. Number of dives are required for a reason. Performing the skills means nothing. Some people are just good at copying what they see. It does not mean he will be able to perform them in a situation where things are hairy and someone's life depends on it. If he wants to kill himself that's his business. Let him. The world is better off without another ego-maniac. He does not however have the right to put someone else in danger to feed his own ego. BTW if it is found out later that the instructor VIOLATED STANDARDS by passing this guy as a DM without the required experience he could be sanctioned by the licensing agency. Just curious did he also fake his cpr first aid experience. And what about his AOW and rescue diver certs. If so stay away from this jagoff if you ever need help.

 

[joe rock]

Unfortunately, a friend of mine who I took my DM course with only has 12 dives.
I tried to convince him that he needed the actual experience and it's more than just getting a stupid piece of plastic afterwards but he didn't really care.
Throughout the course however, I was surprised that he could perform the skills without any difficulty and at the same level everyone else did. The fact that he could do this took away any advice I gave him - he told me me why should he need 60 dives if he could do everything right?
His logbook wasn't elaborately faked, in fact, I'm pretty sure anyone who actually attempted to read through it would realize that it's all fake - in his "60 dives" he only has 3 buddies, one colour ink no instructor or dive operator signatures or stamps.
Is there anything I would tell this guy before something terrible happens to him?

I log my dives because I enjoy it. I use a computer but still do my tables to keep up the practice. As someone else said earlier, I use my log as a record of improvement, skills to work on etc.

AndrewK, I have 29 dives since my late August certification, they are all logged from the same pen since I keep a pen with my logbook and I've only had 3 dive buddies. That doesn't mean my logbook is fake. I do have signatures on many of my dives, but not the last four.

 

[Rick Murchison]

On a related note, I can't open my log book now. It's in a cover, and I had it in a water proof sack, but it somehow became completly encrusted shut after a boat dive a few months ago. I didn't even know it was wet.

Any hints on getting it open? The pages appear to be clued shut. I'd think salt somehow, but it's really stuck.

If you used pencil or indelible ink, putting it under water and waiting a few hours will unstick the pages so you can then spread them out and let 'em dry. If you used water soluble ink I'd try one of the other methods mentioned above first.
Rick

 

[TheRedHead]

It happens every month. Someone reads the Lessons for Life in Scuba Diving, then bashes the article, claiming it was faked. If you don't like the magazine, don't read it. Unless you have absolute proof that the articles have been made up, then you are just as bad as you claim the magazine is. BTW, I have no stake the in magazine at all. However, I have been a journalist and I am just sick and tired of know-it-alls who think, because of Jayson Blaire and others of his ilk, all reporting is fake. It's like saying all car mechanics are thieves, all lawyers are dishonest, etc. Some people obviously have it in for the magazine and come on this board posting absolute nonsense every time a new issue come out. It's getting old.

I acutally have a subscription and bashing wasn't my intent at all. I realize, of course, that "Lessons for Life," are archetypes of everyday incidents. This one was particularly intriguing because it involed an elaborate ruse combined with a less than ideal instructor and technical diving. Christoper Mulrley, as Charle pointed out, is a real life example of a similar incident and perhaps was the inspiration for the article.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I'm at the office this afternoon and I'm perusing my new copy of Scuba Diving magazine. In the section about all the bad things that can happen to unaware divers, "Lessons for Life," there is an article about an AOW diver who supposedly had 11 dives when he started on the Road to Deception and Despair.

He faked 89 dives in his logbook by using different colored inks as well as strategic coffee stains and spaghetti sauce dripping on pages so that he could take a technical diving course.

It just SO HAPPENED that his clueless instructor decided that since 150 feet was ok for this course, then 180 would be even better so the diver with the faked log book experiences a Deep Water Blackout and lives.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this happening in real life?

Did they say what agency? What class?

Agencies have experience requirements but there are other requirements. IANTD requires for example that no dive is more than 30 ft deeper than the students deepest dive to date. IANTD also requires shllow water skills to be completed and a diver with only a hand full of dives isn't going to fool any one during that shallow water work and I know tech instructors who have sent OW instructors home with a list of skills to practice after telling them that they weren't ready for technical dive training. There are also other courses that are prerequisites. You can fake a log book but it's hard to fake a certification. I don't even know that I ever had an instructor look at a log book but I eas required to sign a form stating what my experience was along with doing the liability release.

What entry level tech class allows diving to 150? Without looking it up and from memory, the IANTD advance recreational trimix allows dives to 150 with limited staged decompression but the deep diver course and advanced nitrox are prerequisites. Those other certifications would be on record and they have a max allowable depth of 130 ft.

Beyond the advanced nitrox/recreational trimix classes (the recreational trimix isn't required), the next class (technical diver) has a max allowable depth of 170 ft unless it's combined with normoxic trimix and then I thik the max allowable depth is 200 ft. What did they mean by deep water blackout. That mostly en a diver goes really deep on air and goes unconsious. I've never heard of it as shallow as 170.

If the magazine shows up at the door (I don't subscribe but they keep sending it anyway) I'll have to look the article over.

 

[Solitude Diver]

There seems to be a gap in the story. If the diver actually only had 11 dives, and likely almost all were training dives with only a couple “fun” or practice type dives, it is not very likely that he had much “in water” skills.

I can’t speak for all training agencies, but I assume they are similar. Tec diving does not start out at 180 ft. The Tec training would have started with a lot of shallow water (less than 40’) dives in which basic skills are taught, and safety drills are practiced using double tanks, and side mounts, lift bags, etc. During those dives, it should have been apparent that this guy was not ready for advanced diving.

Even if the person did do well in the training dives, no instructor should have taken him to 180 ft having never been past 130. Tec training is to gradually extend your experience depths, to adjust to the narcosis, etc. This is to minimize the risks of problem occurring, including the potential for deep water black out.

If the story is true, then the instructor should share a lot of the fault in taking a new student to 180 ft who was not ready. And if the story is implying that their first training dive together was to 180 ft (hard to tell from the post), then I highly doubt that it is true.

Just my opinion based on my interpretation.